| Literature in Contexts Contributor(s): Barry, Peter (Author) |
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ISBN: 0719064546 ISBN-13: 9780719064548 Publisher: Manchester University Press OUR PRICE: $123.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2007 Annotation: In the 1980s, the study of the study of literary theory eclipsed the study of the literary text. Today we are told we are "post theory." Yet as literary text emerged from the shadow of theory, it was eclipsed all over again by the study of context. Historicist contextualization became the dominant orientation in literary studies, and this (not quite) New Historicism spread in turn through period after period. "Literature in Contexts" seeks to problematize the very notion of context, which has remained stubbornly un-theorized and un-examined. It puts forward a distinction between "deep" and "broad" context, and argues that we need to counter the prevalence of the latter if literary studies is to avoid becoming a minor branch of history. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Literary Criticism | Semiotics & Theory |
| Dewey: 820.9 |
| Physical Information: 0.87" H x 6.44" W x 9.43" (1.10 lbs) 224 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Is it possible to return the literary text in all its particularity to the centre of literary study, without going back to the 'words-on-the page' myopia of the past? That is the primary question which Literature in contexts engages with. In the 1980s the study of literary theory eclipsed the study of the literary text, but today, we are told, we are 'post-theory'. Yet as it emerged from the shadow of theory, the literary text was eclipsed all over again by the study of context. Historicist contextualisation became the dominant orientation in literary studies, and this (not quite) New Historicism spread in turn through period after period, from the Early Modern, through Romanticism, and on to the Victorian era. 'Is English History?' people began to ask, as it became impossible to attend an academic conference without being subjected to a diet of history lessons. This book seeks to problematise the very notion of context, which has remained for the most part stubbornly un-theorised and un-examined, and it seeks out - in a series of contextualising experiments - contexts which are text-specific, author-specific or literary, rather than historical, putting forward a distinction between 'deep' and 'broad' contexts and arguing that we need to counter the prevalence of the latter if literary studies is to avoid becoming a minor branch of history. |